Chaudhari Hem Raj Of Bahrwal was born into a Sandhu Jat family , It was one of the most prominent jagirdars of its region at that time.Like his father, he had also expanded the area of his Estate. About the year 1595 Guru Arjun, travelling with a few followers in the Lahore district, reached the little town of Bahrwal, which had been founded some years before by a man of the Arora caste, named Bahr. He was not received with hospitality and passed on to the neighbouring village of Jambar, where, tired and foot-sore, he begged for the loan of a charpai (native bedstead) and, lying down in the shade of a tree, went to sleep. By this time Chaudhari Hem Raj of Bahrwal, who was absent when the Guru passed through his village, heard of what had occurred and, ashamed of his townsmen’s. inhospitality, set off to Jambar to try and induce the holy man to re-turn. On his arrival at the village he found the Guru asleep. What was to be done? He dared not wake the saint, for he was uncertain of his temper, nor could he suffer him to remain longer at Jambar; so, being a man of resource and some physical strength, he lifted the charpat and the Guru together on his head and carried him away to Bahrwal.
When Guru Arjun woke he was much pleased with Chaudhari Hem Raj’s attention and called for water to drink. He was told that water of their only rell was brackish. The Guru then directed Chaudhari Hem Raj to throw some sweet cakes down the well. This being done the water immediately became sweet and pure. The Guru also blessed Chaudhari Hem Raj and prophesied that he would have a son, by name Hira Singh, who would be & great and powerful chief.
So runs the legend, believed to this day at Bahrwal; for is not the water of the well, known as Budhewala, still sweet and clear? The legend would have been told with more propriety of Alam the father, or of Mahmana, the grandfather of Chaudhari Hem Raj; for Hira Singh, who was certainly the first man of note in the family, was not born till nearly a hundred years after the death of Guru Arjun, which took place it 1606..
References :-
- Chiefs and Families Note in the Punjab Vol.1 By L.H Griffin